For £1 million, community enterprise Govan Workspace Ltd has bought five and a half acres of former shipyard land in Holmfauld Road where they will create 130,000 square feet of quality office and industrial accommodation.

This will bring an estimated 400 new jobs into Govan. Said Chairman Duncan MacLean, ‘This project will be the prime focus of our management team for the next ten years. It is an outstanding opportunity for us to make a further contribution to the economic revival of Govan and I am very confident we will all rise to the challenge.’

The company currently has three Workspace sites – at Elderpark, Harmony Row and Alexander Stephen House and all are operating at almost full capacity.

Negotiations to buy the contaminated land at Holmfauld Road, Linthouse near the Clyde Tunnel, were described by Pat Cassidy, Workspace Managing Director, as ‘knife-edge.’ He said, ‘Not until our lawyer had said ‘yes, you’ve got it!” was I able to say ‘Wow!’ We’ve been looking for land in the area, seriously, for more than six years and had a few false starts. But this was a nice way to mark 25 years of Govan Workspace.’

The site was the subject of dramatic community protests more than four years ago when owners Clydeport had earmarked 10 acres from the riverside to Govan Road to relocate industrial waste processing company W H Malcolm. ‘It is remarkable we have acquired this site,’ added Mr Cassidy. ‘When we were fighting that development it would have been inconceivable to imagine we’d end up owning half of it one day.’

Govan Workspace’s plot is the land from Govan Road to BAE Systems yard entrance opposite Alexander Stephen House where the Workspace headquarters are located.

‘Our opportunity came when both Glasgow City Council and Clydeport were reminded we were looking for space to grow Govan,’ said Pat Cassidy. It took ten months of negotiation to secure a deal. Funding has come from the Clydesdale Bank and the Charity Bank with each giving Govan Workspace a loan of £500,000.

A further £500,000 grant to de-contaminate the land has come from the Scottish Executive via the City Council. That essential de-contamination is expected to start next month and to be completed by March 2008.